Post by Silent on Aug 18, 2012 19:57:58 GMT -5
It was said that in the forty eighth year of the Scylla, the sky above the city of Tlygaesa fell. Yes, it fell, collapsing onto the thousands below and extinguishing them in an instant. It churned in a howling rage, lightning, fire, earth and water all moving as one until nothing remained of neither the sky nor Tlygaesa but a ruined, empty husk. The lord of power had spoken. No more would they resist him. The bands of drug runners gave up, falling back into the wretched yoke of lowborn society where they belonged and yet, he was not satisfied.
The man hurried, spitting dirt up from the ground with the harsh splashes of his boots, darting through the mud soaked streets around the harem. He pushed passed a large, bug-eyed beast drenched with scales prickled with electric blue hair. The beast moved to stop him, yet the man would not be stayed, tentatively drawing a large hold-out revolver and blasting the alien in the face. Brain matter splashed across the ground and the man continued, the creature’s body dissolving into the muck of the city like so many before him. All that soon remained was the long, eloquent and leonine skull, streaked with blood and filth.
As the man at last reached his destination, he pushed inside the foldout door and fell into the crowd of people awaiting. All wore garments similar to him, the stuff of those who had once been so rich, so respected and so feared. Not so now. Never again, after Tlygaesa. Now, the old lords ran scared, forced into hiding in places such as these, ever with the fear of death clinging to their necks.
‘News?’ asked one, a tall green-hued figure in mud-encrusted golden robes. His eyes narrowed as the dishevelled man before him struggled to stand. How they had fallen.
‘The Galopinis are gone.’ He paused, waiting for that horrible truth to sink in. One man simply put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger.
The others barely noticed. The larger man stepped forwards, shaking in what could only be the most animalistic fear.
‘How is that possible? They were impregnable, nothing, not even the gods…’
‘Careful what you say Luvidicus, the gods walk among us now.’ The other replied.
‘Hellran? Is he…?’
‘Dead. Already dead. I saw him myself, like a shell, no life remained.’
‘What do we do?’ another asked, sinking to his knees, only now realising he had urinated himself, ‘We can’t possibly evade this… Hellran was a god…’
‘As was Oros, even the sky god couldn’t fight Tlygaesa…’ the green-hue replied. He glanced at the dead man, ‘Maybe we should follow him, take the easy way out…’
‘No. We can fight it, we must fight it. Come on Luvidicus, we can do this! We can all-‘ he collapsed, colour drained entirely from his body, eyes shut down, bones crumpled to dust.
The door fell to sawdust as the room filled with light, the purest, brightest and most blinding of light. One man burst into immediate flames from simply gazing too long as the others instinctively threw their hands in front of their eyes. A figure stepped inside, whirring with a mechanical fury, wheels and cranks crunching loudly, loud enough to burst the eardrums of another man, sending cascades of blood tumbling down his head before his brain ruptured and he collapsed.
Luvidicus stood, the only living man in the room and pointed his glaive at the creature standing before him, ‘Who are you?’
The light retreated as though it were an army, filing back to the castle holding of its casing. Soon he was facing what appeared to be an oval glass, inside of which the light shimmered and flickered, sparks and shards of lightning shooting around inside like a thunderstorm ready to erupt. He then realised, this was the head of the creature, looking down he saw that it’s body was entirely mechanical, explaining the harsh industrial sounds. They had now, however, mysteriously quietened and so the creature strode to face him, being fully twice his size.
He stared up at it, determined to face death like a man, like the man he had always been. Then it spoke and all of his strength, all of his bravado and arrogance faded away like a candle being blown out. He fell to his knees, tears streaking his face and begged. He rasped and crawled, wretched and humble, dragging his hands like claws down the legs of his tormentor.
‘Luvidicus Moivre, I charge you with the conspiracy of rape to all the people of this world, to steal its wealth, subject it’s peoples and murder those who would speak against you. What do you say in response?’
‘My lord! Please!! Have Mercy!!’ the man begged, tears clogging his voice box as they flooded down in unnatural numbers.
The creature laughed, shaking the entire building, ‘Mercy? You are speaking to the wrong person. I am the Anamorph and you have been found guilty, die now in pain and misery.’
Luvidicus collapsed, literally drowning in his tears as they flooded into his mouth down his cheeks, filling his throat and forcing away his breath. His eyeballs fell dry and he rolled onto his back, coughing and spluttering to no avail. His body shook one final time and then died.
The Anamorph took one last look around the room and raised his hand. The bodies dissolved to ash as the building collapsed around him, twisting his hand, the matter twisted and convulsed before falling back to the earth as moist soil. His head tilted to the side before raising his hand a final time. The soil split and burst in several places and from it three tall and beautiful tress sprouted to full height, branches elongating and twisting as luminous pink fruit pocked their bodies.
The lightning within the head of Anamorph turned and tossed and resolved itself into something human. It became a smile.
‘Brother,’ the word came with a grin, or at least, he assumed it did. The Anamorph never did see beneath the Lawman’s helmet grill. Yet the word was welcome enough to safely consider a smile and so the Anamorph did not rebuke him.
‘Lawman, good to see you again. It has been too long.’
‘Far too long my friend. I heard you beat the crimelords of Tbacah is less than a week. Nice work.’
‘I could have done it in less than a minute but I wanted the fear to sink it. They deserved it.’ The creature smirked, lightning sparking from its head.
‘I take it you left none alive?’ The Lawman asked, knowing the answer before he asked, but he knew better than to assume with his brother.
‘No, not this time. Their crimes were far greater than those of the Hulicinii tribes. I will have no return of crime to Tbacah whilst I am still around.’
‘And may that be forever brother, may we all be around forever.’ The Lawman smiled, putting a hand to his brother’s mechanised shoulder.
‘Indeed. I fear what would happen to the mortals if we were not around to watch over and guide them. For all their kindness and ingenuity, they are savage in their primal state. It would be a great sorrow if they were to fall away from our light.’
‘Even within our guidance some still fall.’ The Lawman pointed out, beginning to walk with his brother through the halls of his vast planet.
‘A simple fault, nothing is perfect brother, not even we.’ Replied Anamorph, passing through the long, arcing corridor to his main hall. Lighting shimmered through the walls as metal creatures scuttled along, maintaining the palace and delivering messages throughout the planets and systems watched by their overlord. The Anamorph was not one to overlook the safety of his creations.
‘I wouldn’t let Supremus hear that my friend, he’d blow a fuse.’ The Lawman chuckled, stopping one of the metal constructs to ask for a drink. The creature was a quadruped and shining, smooth and speedy with a centauric quality, it’s upper torso possessed with two arms holding a tray. The warm blue eyes regarded the Lawman as he spoke and it nodded kindly before rushing off to acquire the fluid. The Lawman took the moment to look around the vaunted home of his brother. The most obvious thing apparent to him apart from the storms was the sheer cleanliness of it all, sterilisation chambers were filthier than this place. He could literally see his reflection in the metal. Perhaps this was what Anamorph intended. The Lawman was certain their brother was watching, Mirrorus that is. He always did have a habit of clinging to reflections like a wet rag.
‘Indeed he would, but now brother…’ Anamorph paused, as he entered the main hall, showing the Lawman to a large, silver seat before the flickering blue flames of his fire. The Lawman took the seat gratefully as the automaton returned with his drink. The Anamorph continued his conversation, ‘Tell me, why have you come?’
‘Can I not simply visit my brother?’ The Lawman joked, before resuming a neutral tone, ‘We have a problem.’
‘Indeed?’ Anamorph inquired, taking up his own seat upon an ozominite thrown, its shimmering blue absorbing the light of the fire before him.
‘I have received word of a breakout on Theyos. The demon god Azul has escaped and is spreading havoc. His followers are growing in the millions. I have no followers to spare and the world is in the realm of Timorous.’
‘You want me to deal with this?’ Anamorph nodded, ushering one of his centurion robots forward. It was roughly the size of Anamorph, plated fully with an enclosed sheath of strong Adamantium wreathed in a shimmering horde of lightning, its hands were like massive claws built from liquid metal, easily capable of shifting into any form the automaton desired.
Anamorph turned to it, ‘Gather two hundred of your brethren and meet me in the dispatch deck in two hours.’
‘You always had a better rapport with our brother than I. It pains me to ask you to take my role but, Timorous has been rather difficult to deal with and-‘
‘Say no more brother. I will do this. Have no bad feelings, I understand the difficulty of Timorous and will act in your stead. I will speak to him about it.’ Anamorph stood, ‘My home is your home brother, I will return soon.’
‘Farewell brother and thank you once again. The mortals need our help more than ever.’
Anamorph nodded and raised an arm in farewell before disappearing in a blast of lightning.
Eioderas stood before the amassed centurions, identical in appearance apart from his flowing glass cape and improved head visor. His eyes had been melded into a single bar of flowing blue light. Upon seeing his lord appear before them, Eioderas and his army fell to one knee, heads bowed in respect to their creator.
‘Stand!’ issued the voice of the Anamorph, ‘Into the Tirade, we have a world to save.”
As one, the force divided into squads of ten and fell into columns all headed to the boarding planks of the Tirade. The vessel was sparkling, sharp and shining. There were no unusual angles to be found, purely lupine in form, almost like a pouncing wolf. Anamorph marched through the lightning marked corridors to the bridge where the fangs of the vessel lined the viewscreen at the bow.
‘Eioderas, let’s go!’ Anamorph called as the ship began to rise from the hangar. ‘Engage teleport channel.’
‘Aye my lord!’ replied the Praefector, his voice warm and yet not entirely devoid of the metallic drawl of his robotic nature. ‘Arriving at destination now.’
‘Pinpoint the escape point of the god and drop two astraphobic bombs. I want them to know fear for every second up to their demise. What remains of the civilian population will be outside the radius. There will be no friendlies in our drop zone, we go for the kill, we show no mercy,” Anamorph turned to the intercom, ‘All centurions, prepare for drop.’
Eioderas stood, his hands transforming into a long, spiked sword and a tall, proud shield respectively. He headed to the transport room with Anamorph quickly in tow. The lord of the machines beheld his troops as they formed before him on the teleporter pads. His smirked, truly he had achieved the perfect response unit. Where the Lawman was the constable, Anamorph was the S.W.A.T. team, the one who would truly clear away the evil of the galaxy. Only, there would be no arrests, no remorse, only death.
‘Weapons soldiers, on landing I want every filthy creature in sight purged.’ Anamorph echoed sternly, his hand wavering above the activation rune. ‘Leave their leader to me.'
Lightning rained down onto the remnants of the city and the ragged creatures howled in terror, dashing away to hide in shelters and hovels beneath the ground. Yet they would find no peace. The once mighty army of Azul had crumbled even before the first centurion opened fire. They already knew they were defeated. Some gave in, simply curling into foetal positions and crying themselves to death, shivering in sheer horror before being put to death like the animals they were. Others fled, hoping to outrun and cheat death, they would not succeed. Those that remained were the most foolhardy; they decided to fight.
The first kill went to Eioderas, his sword gutting a tall red demon with horns surrounding it’s body like an earth cactus’s thorns. Thick viscous oil spilled from the wound and caught light from the sparks of lightning from Eioderas’s armour, consuming the demon in a ball of fire. Pleased with the kill, the Praefector stepped over the smouldering remains, his left arm changing into a fifty-barrelled minigun as his back revolved to an ammunition tank. He locked his body in place using leg clamps and opened fire, splitting apart the pathetic shelters hastily stacked up by the wretched enemy. Hordes of creatures darted out to escape their destruction but were merely caught up in the storm of shells but forward by the weapon, pulverising them to nothing more than wet ash.
Hearing a noise behind him, Eioderas unclamped the leg locks and turned, parrying aside a blow from a large lilac ogre’s claymore with his shield. His shield moved faster than the eye could see, snapping the claymore in two before shifting into a sickle, wrapping around the neck of the beast and severing his head. Before the body had collapsed, the Praefector was on the move, both arms switching to shotgun-type weapons, gunning down any who were fool enough to meet him. Around he could see the other centurions beginning their work, blasting apart the enemy with projectiles, both energy and shell. The howling of the beasts was soon surpassed by the howling of the wind and those that marched with it.
Anamorph stood upon the ruins of an old infirmary as lightning arced around him, slaying all within fifty metres as he surveyed the battle. Already over two thousand of the enemy had been slain for no losses in return. He calculated that the enemy outnumbered his forces over three hundred thousand to one. He would lose perhaps three automatons - if the enemy were lucky.
Raising his right hand, he blasted apart a vast hive, sending its inhabitants into the sky to be reduced to particles by the thunderstorm. His other hand shot a beam of energy towards the gathering horde to his left, reaping the first six rows with no remains. The enemy knew what they were dealing with, but the Anamorph knew that only slaying their leader would stop the attacks and allow him to continue his work unopposed. He fell to one knee, pistons churning, and vanished.
Eioderas shot the door before him to sawdust, twisting both arms to flamethrowers, he atomised the occupants before returning the entire building to the soil. He turned just in time to see a vast demon approaching him, three times as tall again as him, the demon bore a huge, twisted glaive on which rested the head of one of the centurions. A massive acidic green tongue lolled from its mouth as it crouched to smile at Eioderas with crooked teeth, turquoise eyes regarding the automaton.
‘Where is your master?’ it asked in the language, screams echoing its words as though they were trying to escape its black mouth. It’s twin, curved horns glowed a deep, scarlet red as he spoke.
Eioderas regarded the beast, it was ape-like, with a bent back and long clumsy arms. It had a tail however, short and stubby like that of a rabbit and yet not quite fluffy, more like a piece of obsidian jutting from its rear. Its skin was the colour of midnight, the deepest of blues. Clearly, this was the enemy leader.
‘You are Azul? You killed one of my warriors,’ Eioderas inquired, unmoving, incapable of fear.
The demon nodded, gesturing the head forwards, ‘I didn’t kill him, I merely ripped him apart, he was the one who lacked the will to survive,’ He then threw the head aside and laughed, ‘Now machine, tell me, where is your master?’
‘Why sir, he is right behind you.’ The automaton replied, face and tone unchanged.
The creature turned, fear clouding his eyes to see… nothing.
‘You lied!’ Azul growled, flames erupting from its mouth.
‘I never said I was incapable of lying.’ The automaton replied, sending both arms – now as hooks - right at the demon’s head. The distraction proved worthy as Azul was too slow to act and soon the blades were deep in his cheeks. Eioderas pulled and the demon fell, head smashing against the stone floor as magma blood poured from the wounds.
‘Nor would I say I am not capable of deceit,’ the Praefector almost sounded happy as his left hand changed to an energy blade and sliced off one of the demon’s long, curved horns, lava spewing and burning away the Praefector’s arms.
Azul grinned once again as he swept over the machine with his fist and stood, wounds cauterised by the blood. ‘You’re disarmed, what now pawn?’
‘I wouldn’t say I’m disarmed,’ he replied, stomach opening to reveal two missiles, which launched directly into the demon’s head, ripping off his lower jaw with a torrent of lava falling from it like a cascading waterfall. Azul snarled, his nostrils the only thing visually displaying the action as he rose the glaive, hitting the Praefector faster than he could move. Stomach disable, the automaton dropped to his knees, only to have both kneecaps open to fire a torrent of poison darts, ripping into the demon and lighting up his bloodstream with lightning.
Azul shuddered in pain, with every particle of his being ripping through with shards of deep needle-like damage. The demon flailed, dropping his glaive in fear before he managed to swing a blow at Eioderas. The machine fell, unable to move from the damage. His eyes focussed as the demon’s began to laugh, lightning expunged through sheer force of will. The automaton’s visor narrowed as he watched Azul’s jaw reforming, a cloud of shadow repairing it as he stepped forwards, snarling.
Eioderas turned to look over Azul’s shoulder and spoke, ‘How’d I do lord?’
Azul paused, confused and, judging that the machine had been dealt sufficient damage, turned. On the rocks behind him, sat the Anamorph, its head a thundering smile.
‘Very well my friend. Of course I didn’t expect you to beat him, but you gave a good job of it. I’ll take it from here.’ Replied Anamorph, standing up to look up at the demon.
Azul hefted up its glaive and snorted flame in derision, ‘You’ve been here the whole time?’
‘Indeed I have.’ He smiled, ‘Incidentally Azul is my favourite colour, good choice of a name.’
‘Indeed?’ it snarled, raising its weapon, ‘You will not find me so easy to defeat as your companion will tell you!’
‘Oh believe me, I will.’ Anamorph replied, not moving as the beast charged. Unchanged by the torrent of death approaching, Anamorph simply raised a finger and tapped the demon lightly on the chest. It exploded, shredded to less than a neutron.
Anamorph turned to Eioderas, fixing him with a stare, ‘That’s that then. Inform the Tirade to bio-bomb this section, I want life flowing again before we return home, now let’s go see my brother.’
Timorous was, to be honest, never good in anyone’s books, certainly not the Lawman’s. He was altogether too arrogant and full of himself for anybody to really get on with unless they enjoyed being constantly belittled or humiliated. Anamorph was never entirely sure why his brother liked him more than the others at all, but he was certainly the only male of the brothers and sisters that Timorous liked. Anamorph almost felt insulted thinking of this, did that mean Timorous didn’t think of him as a threat? Perhaps he knew Anamorph was far too loyal to even consider turning from the rule of Timorous. No one would perhaps ever know. Yet as Anamorph departed from his shuttle to the world of jewels, he could not help feeling agitated. It had been a great many years since he had been in his brother’s company, let alone having to face a straight-up conversation with him. Perhaps times had changed.
Two steps off his shuttle told him times had most definitely not changed. The emerald and sapphire corridor, the diamond floor, the multitudes of women. Yes times had not changed at all. Anamorph shrugged off the eager attempts of the women to seduce him. He was never quite sure what they were after, he was just pure energy in a machine shell after all. What were they expecting? The Anamorph informed Eioderas to wait at the door as he entered another corridor, one he knew to lead to the main hall of Timorous’s planetoid home. Along the way he passed the tapestries and busts of past victories, all of course with Timorous in the limelight, although Anamorph knew that Honesty was the true victor at the battle of Jiresas. Honesty had always been humble however and so Timorous had once again found a way to the front. Anamorph sighed, God should have been the true leader. If not for Timorous’s power…
Anamorph had always felt that the others were rather cheated by the simple power Timorous gained; the power to own their powers. Somehow, that just didn’t seem right and so Anamorph, like so many others had done their utmost to hide their powers from their brother. It was no wonder he had usurped his way into leadership. Bowing his head in annoyance, Anamorph continued, trying his best to avoid staring at the jewel-encrusted busts of his elder. As expected, he was stopped at the gigantic doors to the entrance. He expected the reason Timorous had given for their size was to suit their brother Cthulhu. But Anamorph knew it was merely another expression of the might of Timorous.
Anamorph stared down at the diamond warrior before him. Yes, he was literally made of diamond, with ruby eyes and an emerald heart.
‘I’m afraid lord Timorous is busy in a meeting.’ The guard announced, sapphire teeth flickering.
Anamorph smirked, ‘That’s nice.’ He pushed the guard aside and entered the room.
‘GUARD! I GAVE ORDERS I WAS NOT TO BE DISTUR- Oh, brother, it is you!’ Timorous said, rising from his shimmering throne. Anger fading away into a bright winning smile upon his handsome, king-like face. The crown upon his light brown hair shone brighter than the sun as he embraced the Anamorph.
‘How are you sparky? Up to your old tricks?’ Timorous smirked with sparkling white teeth.
Anamorph flinched at the nickname, he was not used to the off-handedness. ‘I am well brother, I see that Ostaf is with you.’ He nodded to the ridiculously obtuse figure clogged against the golden table.
‘Please brother, don’t get up, I’ll come to you.’ Laughed the Anamorph as he stepped over shaking the obscene man’s hand before plumping down beside him, ‘How are things in the Firemart?’
‘Well enough Anamorph, for those of us with mouths to eat and bellies to fill,’ Ostaf replied, his mouth already sloshing with three full chickens inside. Anamorph noticed the chickens were still alive.
‘Indeed.’ He turned to Timorous, who had returned to his throne surrounded by admiring women who had seemingly appeared from nowhere, ‘So this is the urgent business meeting your guard tried to stop me entering?’
‘Of course, what is more important than a meal with family and the love a good woman, or several?’ replied Timorous, with a sly glance towards his companions.
‘Perhaps the safety of your subjects?’ Anamorph answered coldly, eyes turning from warm yellow to icy blue.
Timorous frowned, ‘Have I missed something or are you sneering at your king?’
‘Your planet, Theyos was invaded two weeks ago by the Demon god Azul. Had the Lawman not warned me to intervene the planet would have been destroyed. Tell me brother, since when did parties become more important to you than the lives of your people?!’
Timorous stood, the women backing away as he did. Anamorph could see he had struck a chord. He watched the eyes of his brother and suddenly knew the truth.
‘You didn’t know, did you?’ he asked, eyes returning to neutral white.
‘I heard but… but Honesty assured me he had stopped the invasion only hours after it had begun. Why was I not informed of this?’ Timorous replied.
‘Wait, Honesty told you that? You’re sure?’ Anamorph inquired, rising from the table as Ostaf ate on, oblivious to the events occurring before him.
‘Yes, it was most certainly him. I remember it as clear as day. He must have been mistaken. Ostaf be off with you I must contact Honesty.’ Ostaf frowned and nodded, disappearing in a whirl as Timorous reached out with his mind.
‘I’ll inform the Lawman,’ offered Anamorph.
‘No, I’ll deal with this myself,’ Timorous replied. ‘Honesty should never have crossed me in my own system. He blinded me with his fancy lies.’
‘Now, wait a minute, we don’t know-‘
‘Shut up Anamorph, don’t you dare contradict me! Now run back to your machines!’ Timorous roared, lashing the door open with his hand, ‘There’s the door, brother, use it!’
Anamorph bowed, lightning sparkling from his cheeks at the rebuke and left for his shuttle. As the doors of the palace closed behind him and he returned to the Tirade, he felt something was out of place. Yet, he could not be sure. It was not long before the vessel had plunged from this galaxy to his own patch in the dimensions and yet still the insecurity remained. He searched back through his head, looking for a possible reason, something he had not witnessed, something he had missed, something one of his brothers had said. Yet still the unease persisted. When the Tirade had docked and the centurions returned to the workshop form repairs, Anamorph proceeded directly to his laboratory. He had intended to follow up the idea of a centurion ground control transport but the pain at the back of his head prevented him from thinking straight. Trying to block out the usual anger of his lord brother, he broke through the veil of his mind trying with all his might to find out what was bothering him. The Anamorph continued to cycle through his memories when suddenly he stopped and froze, it was so very obvious, so very opaque he should have noticed it straight away. Honesty never makes mistakes, Honesty never lies.
Seconds later he was back aboard the Tirade, loaded fully with two thousand centurions and his heart heavy with fear. This was unknown territory and he hoped he would not have to do what he thought he would have to do. The sheer impossibility of such a suggestion planted within his head was laughable at best, taboo at worst. As the vessel exited the teleportation drive to arrive aboard the Jewel world, he felt his headache growing worse. Feeling his head begin to ache, he strolled back to the bridge with Eioderas in tow, the faithful Praefector dogging his lord’s every step when suddenly, he felt his mind split. Anamorph collapsed in pain, pain greater than he had ever experienced. He rushed to the bridge, demanding the viewscreen.
Staring down at Timorous’s palace he knew that was the source of the pain. His thought was confirmed as a figure appeared on the bridge directly behind him. Black as the vortex itself, the Lawman stepped forwards and put his hand to his shoulder.
‘Something terrible has happened.’
The man hurried, spitting dirt up from the ground with the harsh splashes of his boots, darting through the mud soaked streets around the harem. He pushed passed a large, bug-eyed beast drenched with scales prickled with electric blue hair. The beast moved to stop him, yet the man would not be stayed, tentatively drawing a large hold-out revolver and blasting the alien in the face. Brain matter splashed across the ground and the man continued, the creature’s body dissolving into the muck of the city like so many before him. All that soon remained was the long, eloquent and leonine skull, streaked with blood and filth.
As the man at last reached his destination, he pushed inside the foldout door and fell into the crowd of people awaiting. All wore garments similar to him, the stuff of those who had once been so rich, so respected and so feared. Not so now. Never again, after Tlygaesa. Now, the old lords ran scared, forced into hiding in places such as these, ever with the fear of death clinging to their necks.
‘News?’ asked one, a tall green-hued figure in mud-encrusted golden robes. His eyes narrowed as the dishevelled man before him struggled to stand. How they had fallen.
‘The Galopinis are gone.’ He paused, waiting for that horrible truth to sink in. One man simply put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger.
The others barely noticed. The larger man stepped forwards, shaking in what could only be the most animalistic fear.
‘How is that possible? They were impregnable, nothing, not even the gods…’
‘Careful what you say Luvidicus, the gods walk among us now.’ The other replied.
‘Hellran? Is he…?’
‘Dead. Already dead. I saw him myself, like a shell, no life remained.’
‘What do we do?’ another asked, sinking to his knees, only now realising he had urinated himself, ‘We can’t possibly evade this… Hellran was a god…’
‘As was Oros, even the sky god couldn’t fight Tlygaesa…’ the green-hue replied. He glanced at the dead man, ‘Maybe we should follow him, take the easy way out…’
‘No. We can fight it, we must fight it. Come on Luvidicus, we can do this! We can all-‘ he collapsed, colour drained entirely from his body, eyes shut down, bones crumpled to dust.
The door fell to sawdust as the room filled with light, the purest, brightest and most blinding of light. One man burst into immediate flames from simply gazing too long as the others instinctively threw their hands in front of their eyes. A figure stepped inside, whirring with a mechanical fury, wheels and cranks crunching loudly, loud enough to burst the eardrums of another man, sending cascades of blood tumbling down his head before his brain ruptured and he collapsed.
Luvidicus stood, the only living man in the room and pointed his glaive at the creature standing before him, ‘Who are you?’
The light retreated as though it were an army, filing back to the castle holding of its casing. Soon he was facing what appeared to be an oval glass, inside of which the light shimmered and flickered, sparks and shards of lightning shooting around inside like a thunderstorm ready to erupt. He then realised, this was the head of the creature, looking down he saw that it’s body was entirely mechanical, explaining the harsh industrial sounds. They had now, however, mysteriously quietened and so the creature strode to face him, being fully twice his size.
He stared up at it, determined to face death like a man, like the man he had always been. Then it spoke and all of his strength, all of his bravado and arrogance faded away like a candle being blown out. He fell to his knees, tears streaking his face and begged. He rasped and crawled, wretched and humble, dragging his hands like claws down the legs of his tormentor.
‘Luvidicus Moivre, I charge you with the conspiracy of rape to all the people of this world, to steal its wealth, subject it’s peoples and murder those who would speak against you. What do you say in response?’
‘My lord! Please!! Have Mercy!!’ the man begged, tears clogging his voice box as they flooded down in unnatural numbers.
The creature laughed, shaking the entire building, ‘Mercy? You are speaking to the wrong person. I am the Anamorph and you have been found guilty, die now in pain and misery.’
Luvidicus collapsed, literally drowning in his tears as they flooded into his mouth down his cheeks, filling his throat and forcing away his breath. His eyeballs fell dry and he rolled onto his back, coughing and spluttering to no avail. His body shook one final time and then died.
The Anamorph took one last look around the room and raised his hand. The bodies dissolved to ash as the building collapsed around him, twisting his hand, the matter twisted and convulsed before falling back to the earth as moist soil. His head tilted to the side before raising his hand a final time. The soil split and burst in several places and from it three tall and beautiful tress sprouted to full height, branches elongating and twisting as luminous pink fruit pocked their bodies.
The lightning within the head of Anamorph turned and tossed and resolved itself into something human. It became a smile.
‘Brother,’ the word came with a grin, or at least, he assumed it did. The Anamorph never did see beneath the Lawman’s helmet grill. Yet the word was welcome enough to safely consider a smile and so the Anamorph did not rebuke him.
‘Lawman, good to see you again. It has been too long.’
‘Far too long my friend. I heard you beat the crimelords of Tbacah is less than a week. Nice work.’
‘I could have done it in less than a minute but I wanted the fear to sink it. They deserved it.’ The creature smirked, lightning sparking from its head.
‘I take it you left none alive?’ The Lawman asked, knowing the answer before he asked, but he knew better than to assume with his brother.
‘No, not this time. Their crimes were far greater than those of the Hulicinii tribes. I will have no return of crime to Tbacah whilst I am still around.’
‘And may that be forever brother, may we all be around forever.’ The Lawman smiled, putting a hand to his brother’s mechanised shoulder.
‘Indeed. I fear what would happen to the mortals if we were not around to watch over and guide them. For all their kindness and ingenuity, they are savage in their primal state. It would be a great sorrow if they were to fall away from our light.’
‘Even within our guidance some still fall.’ The Lawman pointed out, beginning to walk with his brother through the halls of his vast planet.
‘A simple fault, nothing is perfect brother, not even we.’ Replied Anamorph, passing through the long, arcing corridor to his main hall. Lighting shimmered through the walls as metal creatures scuttled along, maintaining the palace and delivering messages throughout the planets and systems watched by their overlord. The Anamorph was not one to overlook the safety of his creations.
‘I wouldn’t let Supremus hear that my friend, he’d blow a fuse.’ The Lawman chuckled, stopping one of the metal constructs to ask for a drink. The creature was a quadruped and shining, smooth and speedy with a centauric quality, it’s upper torso possessed with two arms holding a tray. The warm blue eyes regarded the Lawman as he spoke and it nodded kindly before rushing off to acquire the fluid. The Lawman took the moment to look around the vaunted home of his brother. The most obvious thing apparent to him apart from the storms was the sheer cleanliness of it all, sterilisation chambers were filthier than this place. He could literally see his reflection in the metal. Perhaps this was what Anamorph intended. The Lawman was certain their brother was watching, Mirrorus that is. He always did have a habit of clinging to reflections like a wet rag.
‘Indeed he would, but now brother…’ Anamorph paused, as he entered the main hall, showing the Lawman to a large, silver seat before the flickering blue flames of his fire. The Lawman took the seat gratefully as the automaton returned with his drink. The Anamorph continued his conversation, ‘Tell me, why have you come?’
‘Can I not simply visit my brother?’ The Lawman joked, before resuming a neutral tone, ‘We have a problem.’
‘Indeed?’ Anamorph inquired, taking up his own seat upon an ozominite thrown, its shimmering blue absorbing the light of the fire before him.
‘I have received word of a breakout on Theyos. The demon god Azul has escaped and is spreading havoc. His followers are growing in the millions. I have no followers to spare and the world is in the realm of Timorous.’
‘You want me to deal with this?’ Anamorph nodded, ushering one of his centurion robots forward. It was roughly the size of Anamorph, plated fully with an enclosed sheath of strong Adamantium wreathed in a shimmering horde of lightning, its hands were like massive claws built from liquid metal, easily capable of shifting into any form the automaton desired.
Anamorph turned to it, ‘Gather two hundred of your brethren and meet me in the dispatch deck in two hours.’
‘You always had a better rapport with our brother than I. It pains me to ask you to take my role but, Timorous has been rather difficult to deal with and-‘
‘Say no more brother. I will do this. Have no bad feelings, I understand the difficulty of Timorous and will act in your stead. I will speak to him about it.’ Anamorph stood, ‘My home is your home brother, I will return soon.’
‘Farewell brother and thank you once again. The mortals need our help more than ever.’
Anamorph nodded and raised an arm in farewell before disappearing in a blast of lightning.
Eioderas stood before the amassed centurions, identical in appearance apart from his flowing glass cape and improved head visor. His eyes had been melded into a single bar of flowing blue light. Upon seeing his lord appear before them, Eioderas and his army fell to one knee, heads bowed in respect to their creator.
‘Stand!’ issued the voice of the Anamorph, ‘Into the Tirade, we have a world to save.”
As one, the force divided into squads of ten and fell into columns all headed to the boarding planks of the Tirade. The vessel was sparkling, sharp and shining. There were no unusual angles to be found, purely lupine in form, almost like a pouncing wolf. Anamorph marched through the lightning marked corridors to the bridge where the fangs of the vessel lined the viewscreen at the bow.
‘Eioderas, let’s go!’ Anamorph called as the ship began to rise from the hangar. ‘Engage teleport channel.’
‘Aye my lord!’ replied the Praefector, his voice warm and yet not entirely devoid of the metallic drawl of his robotic nature. ‘Arriving at destination now.’
‘Pinpoint the escape point of the god and drop two astraphobic bombs. I want them to know fear for every second up to their demise. What remains of the civilian population will be outside the radius. There will be no friendlies in our drop zone, we go for the kill, we show no mercy,” Anamorph turned to the intercom, ‘All centurions, prepare for drop.’
Eioderas stood, his hands transforming into a long, spiked sword and a tall, proud shield respectively. He headed to the transport room with Anamorph quickly in tow. The lord of the machines beheld his troops as they formed before him on the teleporter pads. His smirked, truly he had achieved the perfect response unit. Where the Lawman was the constable, Anamorph was the S.W.A.T. team, the one who would truly clear away the evil of the galaxy. Only, there would be no arrests, no remorse, only death.
‘Weapons soldiers, on landing I want every filthy creature in sight purged.’ Anamorph echoed sternly, his hand wavering above the activation rune. ‘Leave their leader to me.'
Lightning rained down onto the remnants of the city and the ragged creatures howled in terror, dashing away to hide in shelters and hovels beneath the ground. Yet they would find no peace. The once mighty army of Azul had crumbled even before the first centurion opened fire. They already knew they were defeated. Some gave in, simply curling into foetal positions and crying themselves to death, shivering in sheer horror before being put to death like the animals they were. Others fled, hoping to outrun and cheat death, they would not succeed. Those that remained were the most foolhardy; they decided to fight.
The first kill went to Eioderas, his sword gutting a tall red demon with horns surrounding it’s body like an earth cactus’s thorns. Thick viscous oil spilled from the wound and caught light from the sparks of lightning from Eioderas’s armour, consuming the demon in a ball of fire. Pleased with the kill, the Praefector stepped over the smouldering remains, his left arm changing into a fifty-barrelled minigun as his back revolved to an ammunition tank. He locked his body in place using leg clamps and opened fire, splitting apart the pathetic shelters hastily stacked up by the wretched enemy. Hordes of creatures darted out to escape their destruction but were merely caught up in the storm of shells but forward by the weapon, pulverising them to nothing more than wet ash.
Hearing a noise behind him, Eioderas unclamped the leg locks and turned, parrying aside a blow from a large lilac ogre’s claymore with his shield. His shield moved faster than the eye could see, snapping the claymore in two before shifting into a sickle, wrapping around the neck of the beast and severing his head. Before the body had collapsed, the Praefector was on the move, both arms switching to shotgun-type weapons, gunning down any who were fool enough to meet him. Around he could see the other centurions beginning their work, blasting apart the enemy with projectiles, both energy and shell. The howling of the beasts was soon surpassed by the howling of the wind and those that marched with it.
Anamorph stood upon the ruins of an old infirmary as lightning arced around him, slaying all within fifty metres as he surveyed the battle. Already over two thousand of the enemy had been slain for no losses in return. He calculated that the enemy outnumbered his forces over three hundred thousand to one. He would lose perhaps three automatons - if the enemy were lucky.
Raising his right hand, he blasted apart a vast hive, sending its inhabitants into the sky to be reduced to particles by the thunderstorm. His other hand shot a beam of energy towards the gathering horde to his left, reaping the first six rows with no remains. The enemy knew what they were dealing with, but the Anamorph knew that only slaying their leader would stop the attacks and allow him to continue his work unopposed. He fell to one knee, pistons churning, and vanished.
Eioderas shot the door before him to sawdust, twisting both arms to flamethrowers, he atomised the occupants before returning the entire building to the soil. He turned just in time to see a vast demon approaching him, three times as tall again as him, the demon bore a huge, twisted glaive on which rested the head of one of the centurions. A massive acidic green tongue lolled from its mouth as it crouched to smile at Eioderas with crooked teeth, turquoise eyes regarding the automaton.
‘Where is your master?’ it asked in the language, screams echoing its words as though they were trying to escape its black mouth. It’s twin, curved horns glowed a deep, scarlet red as he spoke.
Eioderas regarded the beast, it was ape-like, with a bent back and long clumsy arms. It had a tail however, short and stubby like that of a rabbit and yet not quite fluffy, more like a piece of obsidian jutting from its rear. Its skin was the colour of midnight, the deepest of blues. Clearly, this was the enemy leader.
‘You are Azul? You killed one of my warriors,’ Eioderas inquired, unmoving, incapable of fear.
The demon nodded, gesturing the head forwards, ‘I didn’t kill him, I merely ripped him apart, he was the one who lacked the will to survive,’ He then threw the head aside and laughed, ‘Now machine, tell me, where is your master?’
‘Why sir, he is right behind you.’ The automaton replied, face and tone unchanged.
The creature turned, fear clouding his eyes to see… nothing.
‘You lied!’ Azul growled, flames erupting from its mouth.
‘I never said I was incapable of lying.’ The automaton replied, sending both arms – now as hooks - right at the demon’s head. The distraction proved worthy as Azul was too slow to act and soon the blades were deep in his cheeks. Eioderas pulled and the demon fell, head smashing against the stone floor as magma blood poured from the wounds.
‘Nor would I say I am not capable of deceit,’ the Praefector almost sounded happy as his left hand changed to an energy blade and sliced off one of the demon’s long, curved horns, lava spewing and burning away the Praefector’s arms.
Azul grinned once again as he swept over the machine with his fist and stood, wounds cauterised by the blood. ‘You’re disarmed, what now pawn?’
‘I wouldn’t say I’m disarmed,’ he replied, stomach opening to reveal two missiles, which launched directly into the demon’s head, ripping off his lower jaw with a torrent of lava falling from it like a cascading waterfall. Azul snarled, his nostrils the only thing visually displaying the action as he rose the glaive, hitting the Praefector faster than he could move. Stomach disable, the automaton dropped to his knees, only to have both kneecaps open to fire a torrent of poison darts, ripping into the demon and lighting up his bloodstream with lightning.
Azul shuddered in pain, with every particle of his being ripping through with shards of deep needle-like damage. The demon flailed, dropping his glaive in fear before he managed to swing a blow at Eioderas. The machine fell, unable to move from the damage. His eyes focussed as the demon’s began to laugh, lightning expunged through sheer force of will. The automaton’s visor narrowed as he watched Azul’s jaw reforming, a cloud of shadow repairing it as he stepped forwards, snarling.
Eioderas turned to look over Azul’s shoulder and spoke, ‘How’d I do lord?’
Azul paused, confused and, judging that the machine had been dealt sufficient damage, turned. On the rocks behind him, sat the Anamorph, its head a thundering smile.
‘Very well my friend. Of course I didn’t expect you to beat him, but you gave a good job of it. I’ll take it from here.’ Replied Anamorph, standing up to look up at the demon.
Azul hefted up its glaive and snorted flame in derision, ‘You’ve been here the whole time?’
‘Indeed I have.’ He smiled, ‘Incidentally Azul is my favourite colour, good choice of a name.’
‘Indeed?’ it snarled, raising its weapon, ‘You will not find me so easy to defeat as your companion will tell you!’
‘Oh believe me, I will.’ Anamorph replied, not moving as the beast charged. Unchanged by the torrent of death approaching, Anamorph simply raised a finger and tapped the demon lightly on the chest. It exploded, shredded to less than a neutron.
Anamorph turned to Eioderas, fixing him with a stare, ‘That’s that then. Inform the Tirade to bio-bomb this section, I want life flowing again before we return home, now let’s go see my brother.’
Timorous was, to be honest, never good in anyone’s books, certainly not the Lawman’s. He was altogether too arrogant and full of himself for anybody to really get on with unless they enjoyed being constantly belittled or humiliated. Anamorph was never entirely sure why his brother liked him more than the others at all, but he was certainly the only male of the brothers and sisters that Timorous liked. Anamorph almost felt insulted thinking of this, did that mean Timorous didn’t think of him as a threat? Perhaps he knew Anamorph was far too loyal to even consider turning from the rule of Timorous. No one would perhaps ever know. Yet as Anamorph departed from his shuttle to the world of jewels, he could not help feeling agitated. It had been a great many years since he had been in his brother’s company, let alone having to face a straight-up conversation with him. Perhaps times had changed.
Two steps off his shuttle told him times had most definitely not changed. The emerald and sapphire corridor, the diamond floor, the multitudes of women. Yes times had not changed at all. Anamorph shrugged off the eager attempts of the women to seduce him. He was never quite sure what they were after, he was just pure energy in a machine shell after all. What were they expecting? The Anamorph informed Eioderas to wait at the door as he entered another corridor, one he knew to lead to the main hall of Timorous’s planetoid home. Along the way he passed the tapestries and busts of past victories, all of course with Timorous in the limelight, although Anamorph knew that Honesty was the true victor at the battle of Jiresas. Honesty had always been humble however and so Timorous had once again found a way to the front. Anamorph sighed, God should have been the true leader. If not for Timorous’s power…
Anamorph had always felt that the others were rather cheated by the simple power Timorous gained; the power to own their powers. Somehow, that just didn’t seem right and so Anamorph, like so many others had done their utmost to hide their powers from their brother. It was no wonder he had usurped his way into leadership. Bowing his head in annoyance, Anamorph continued, trying his best to avoid staring at the jewel-encrusted busts of his elder. As expected, he was stopped at the gigantic doors to the entrance. He expected the reason Timorous had given for their size was to suit their brother Cthulhu. But Anamorph knew it was merely another expression of the might of Timorous.
Anamorph stared down at the diamond warrior before him. Yes, he was literally made of diamond, with ruby eyes and an emerald heart.
‘I’m afraid lord Timorous is busy in a meeting.’ The guard announced, sapphire teeth flickering.
Anamorph smirked, ‘That’s nice.’ He pushed the guard aside and entered the room.
‘GUARD! I GAVE ORDERS I WAS NOT TO BE DISTUR- Oh, brother, it is you!’ Timorous said, rising from his shimmering throne. Anger fading away into a bright winning smile upon his handsome, king-like face. The crown upon his light brown hair shone brighter than the sun as he embraced the Anamorph.
‘How are you sparky? Up to your old tricks?’ Timorous smirked with sparkling white teeth.
Anamorph flinched at the nickname, he was not used to the off-handedness. ‘I am well brother, I see that Ostaf is with you.’ He nodded to the ridiculously obtuse figure clogged against the golden table.
‘Please brother, don’t get up, I’ll come to you.’ Laughed the Anamorph as he stepped over shaking the obscene man’s hand before plumping down beside him, ‘How are things in the Firemart?’
‘Well enough Anamorph, for those of us with mouths to eat and bellies to fill,’ Ostaf replied, his mouth already sloshing with three full chickens inside. Anamorph noticed the chickens were still alive.
‘Indeed.’ He turned to Timorous, who had returned to his throne surrounded by admiring women who had seemingly appeared from nowhere, ‘So this is the urgent business meeting your guard tried to stop me entering?’
‘Of course, what is more important than a meal with family and the love a good woman, or several?’ replied Timorous, with a sly glance towards his companions.
‘Perhaps the safety of your subjects?’ Anamorph answered coldly, eyes turning from warm yellow to icy blue.
Timorous frowned, ‘Have I missed something or are you sneering at your king?’
‘Your planet, Theyos was invaded two weeks ago by the Demon god Azul. Had the Lawman not warned me to intervene the planet would have been destroyed. Tell me brother, since when did parties become more important to you than the lives of your people?!’
Timorous stood, the women backing away as he did. Anamorph could see he had struck a chord. He watched the eyes of his brother and suddenly knew the truth.
‘You didn’t know, did you?’ he asked, eyes returning to neutral white.
‘I heard but… but Honesty assured me he had stopped the invasion only hours after it had begun. Why was I not informed of this?’ Timorous replied.
‘Wait, Honesty told you that? You’re sure?’ Anamorph inquired, rising from the table as Ostaf ate on, oblivious to the events occurring before him.
‘Yes, it was most certainly him. I remember it as clear as day. He must have been mistaken. Ostaf be off with you I must contact Honesty.’ Ostaf frowned and nodded, disappearing in a whirl as Timorous reached out with his mind.
‘I’ll inform the Lawman,’ offered Anamorph.
‘No, I’ll deal with this myself,’ Timorous replied. ‘Honesty should never have crossed me in my own system. He blinded me with his fancy lies.’
‘Now, wait a minute, we don’t know-‘
‘Shut up Anamorph, don’t you dare contradict me! Now run back to your machines!’ Timorous roared, lashing the door open with his hand, ‘There’s the door, brother, use it!’
Anamorph bowed, lightning sparkling from his cheeks at the rebuke and left for his shuttle. As the doors of the palace closed behind him and he returned to the Tirade, he felt something was out of place. Yet, he could not be sure. It was not long before the vessel had plunged from this galaxy to his own patch in the dimensions and yet still the insecurity remained. He searched back through his head, looking for a possible reason, something he had not witnessed, something he had missed, something one of his brothers had said. Yet still the unease persisted. When the Tirade had docked and the centurions returned to the workshop form repairs, Anamorph proceeded directly to his laboratory. He had intended to follow up the idea of a centurion ground control transport but the pain at the back of his head prevented him from thinking straight. Trying to block out the usual anger of his lord brother, he broke through the veil of his mind trying with all his might to find out what was bothering him. The Anamorph continued to cycle through his memories when suddenly he stopped and froze, it was so very obvious, so very opaque he should have noticed it straight away. Honesty never makes mistakes, Honesty never lies.
Seconds later he was back aboard the Tirade, loaded fully with two thousand centurions and his heart heavy with fear. This was unknown territory and he hoped he would not have to do what he thought he would have to do. The sheer impossibility of such a suggestion planted within his head was laughable at best, taboo at worst. As the vessel exited the teleportation drive to arrive aboard the Jewel world, he felt his headache growing worse. Feeling his head begin to ache, he strolled back to the bridge with Eioderas in tow, the faithful Praefector dogging his lord’s every step when suddenly, he felt his mind split. Anamorph collapsed in pain, pain greater than he had ever experienced. He rushed to the bridge, demanding the viewscreen.
Staring down at Timorous’s palace he knew that was the source of the pain. His thought was confirmed as a figure appeared on the bridge directly behind him. Black as the vortex itself, the Lawman stepped forwards and put his hand to his shoulder.
‘Something terrible has happened.’